‘I’M NOT going to be shut up. I want the whole people of Britain to raise their voice against this,’ said peace campaigner Brian Haw yesterday.
Holding up a picture of a baby with horrific deformities, taken by a doctor in Afghanistan, he said he would take his fight for the right to protest outside parliament all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, if necessary.
This was after the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the government and the head of the Metropolitan Police, against his five-year-long vigil.
Lots of people came to show their support for Haw, 56.
Last July, he won a High Court ruling against an attempt to ban his round-the-clock protest against the war in Iraq, under the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act.
The three Court of Appeal judges – Sir Anthony Clarke, Lord Justice Laws and Lady Justice Hallett – have now overturned that decision.
The government had introduced the legislation with the specific intent of forcing Brian Haw to abandon his post.
The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 states anyone wanting to demonstrate in a 1km zone around Parliament Square must have permission from the police when the demonstration starts.
Previously in the High Court, lawyers for Brian Haw argued that his demonstration had begun four years earlier and therefore he did not have to apply for authorisation.
‘We are not the security risk, we are not the risk to the world, Bush and Blair are,’ he said.